Mayhaw Man

I'm kinda with you on Camellia Grill. They have been getting by for years on the fond memories of Tulane students who only ate there when they were loaded. It's really a shame, because there was a point when I enjoyed eating there because it was all fresh and made to order and also because I like the way that the place looks. Glad you had fun otherwise.

My answer was edited down from 10 to seven for clarity. I could pm you the extended play version if you wish (including bonus tracks). Community Dark Roast steamed through a cheesy Krups steam blower into hot milk is how I work a full time job and still crank out all of the other stuff I keep in the air on a busy week. It's not expresso through a $5000 dollar machine, but it gets the job done.

I always called that "Eggs in a Frame." That would be cute! Egg in a Basket is what we always called it. My boys eat it for breakfast all of the time with a piece of cheddar melted on top.

What a snob. You know you secretly desire the smooth combination of Velvety Velveeta and of rich, dark chocolate combined into a delicious, fudgy treat.

I went in 97 (I think). It was actually a pretty good show in terms of what I learned and a great show in terms of "things I don't need or want to know anything else about". Those Sumo wrestling suits and some set up involving a wall, some velcro, and a drunk was also very popular . I did get some great barware sources and found a very cool pos system that we later ended up buying a few of, but mainly I just stared at things I could not quite fathom and laughed alot. I guess I am more of a "bar bar" guy and not so much of a "theme bar guy". I realise now that I would have gotten alot more (for what I needed) at the Rest. Show in Chicago, which I would reccomend to anybody here if they don't know what goes into the purchasing/design/planning sides of serving food.

Lunch- Dinner is nice but a whole other experience. Virtually everywhere we are discussing will take reservations for late dinner and some of them kind of specialize in it. As always, it is good to call ahead, but you should have no trouble. Incidentally, this is a late town. We are kind of on our on time here and generally dinner is late and music is later. There are no closing hours for drinking to speak of and things tend to go until daylight at many places. During the Jazz Festival many clubs have bands scheduled to start (and play 3 full sets) at 3 a.m.

Welcome to egullet. Come on down and thaw out and get something to eat. Late March and early April are about as good as it gets weather wise around here (maybe mid October), not too hot but not humid and 40 either. You mentioned several places I like quite a bit on your list. Redfish Grill is a very dependable spot for lunch or dinner (I much prefer it for lunch) and Mr. B's is good as well (Brennan Family Restaurants might differ in what they serve etc., but whatever it is there is a pretty good chance that it is going to be done right). I like Bayona, but when I am getting into that catagory of dining I much prefer Peristyle (as I am sure you have seen from my many posts on that venue). You also may want to consider Restaurant August if you are planning on doing a little fine dining. It is currently considered by many to be one of the finer places in the country for big buck dining and I am extremely fond of both the place and of the work that Chef John Besh turns out. (the link is to a media review link-go to Dec. 21 for a review and more info) I also am pretty crazy about NOLA (yeah, yeah, I know it's Emeril's place-but the food is over the top and it is still a really good (as are all of his New Orleans rests.) place to get an interesting casual meal). Emeril has used it for years as a place to experiment with the concept of over the top, too much of this, too much of that, and let's see what happens kind of place. The food is good, the specials are better, and the desserts are really good. In fact, just going there after another meal for a dessert and a little after dinner drink is a good thing to do and they are glad to have you and happy to serve at the bar if you like (as are most of the places in this town, a great thing if you ask me). You mentioned a real New Orleans Experience. Well, if you are going to be here on a Friday and want the real deal, go down and eat in the DOWNSTAIRS dining room at Galitoire's. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is more New Orleans than that. You will see some real dinosaurs blowing it out New Orleans style as most of them have been doing most Fridays their entire lives. It is loud and fun. It will not be the quitest fine dining experience you will ever have, but I promise you will enjoy it. Let us know a little more and we can be more specific. Are you up for fine dining, mid level, casual, etc. There are a number of places in the Warehouse Dist. CBD that you could walk down St Charles and get to if you felt adventuresome. Let us know as there are lots of willing advisers ready to help. One of the great things about New Orleans is that even people who have visited only a time or two develop very strong attachments/feelings about certain places and get stuck in a rut (albeit a very pleasant and tasty rut) so it is always good to get plenty of diverse opinions and there is usually not shortage of them here.

I'm with Varmint on this one. It might need more butter though. Perhaps there was a printing mistake.

I apologize for giving the clearly stated opinion above. Perhaps you missed my point. I like (not always in this order): 1) Gambino's 2) Haydel's 3) Mandeville Bakeshop 4) Paul's To me these are the best tasting King Cakes in the New Orleans area. I am at work eating some from the Mandeville Bake Shop right now. It is a pecan creme filled version and pretty good, but a little gooey for my personal taste. Of course "taste" is a matter of "taste" and my preferences may be different than yours. And of course, there is the matter of my rose colored glasses You asked for the above three things and it looks to me like you got a fairly wide variety of answers from interested participants. If you were not pleased with others opinions that is certainly a personal choice, but as with virtually every topic covered here there are going to be broadly varying opinions and generally the answers are going to be deeper than a yes or a no. I think that in the few posts above you recieved : recomendations, suggestions, criticisms.

Your post just finished up my day in a very nice way. Those are some lucky children (and parents) having you for their teacher everyday. Thank you. Brooks

Well, if Steven "Cool Hand Luke" Shaw could eat a thousand of those deviled eggs, how many of these babies could he eat. I have had deviled quails eggs at a wedding as part of the cocktail buffet. They were delicious, although those particular ones were a little heavy on a vinegar taste that they got a little carried away with. Rachel's looked delicious.

This article from Today's Times Picayne involves the tradition out in the Prairies of Louisiana of maskers riding from house to house collecting the ingredients for a big pot of Gumbo. They also drink beer, fall off of horses, and wear really cool masks and big pointy hats. THere are some excellent photos if you will punch them up after you read the article. Just go to today's photos. Gumbo-The Hard Way

I enjoyed the article. Nothing like photos of eggs to get the heart pumping on a dismal Sunday afternoon. If the Tavern on the Green guys wear Krispy Kreme hats, what do the Krispy Kreme guys wear? How long is the hold time on the poached eggs? Do they knock them all out in the morning or is it a several time a day process?

A very fine mesh sifter like this is pretty handy. I have tried tons of fancy mechanical types and they don't work as well or as fast as this kind. You will also need some cooling racks like these. Cheap ones work just as well as expensive ones.

I don't know that the compaction comes from single pieces of bread. It more likely has to do with the fact that it has been made ahead of time and it tends to get "flat" pretty quickly. In New Orleans, at Commander's Palace, waitstaff will ask at the beginning of the meal if you are going to be ordering Bread Pudding Soufflee. THis is not really a hardsell technique, but has to do with the fact that it is run into the oven by the order and not made ahead of time. It is delicious and certainly not flat. I never care anyway as I like it as much out of the fridge as a cold item as I do all hot and covered in sauce fresh out of the oven. Big drripping hunks of day old bread pudding are one of the pleasures of life, in my book.

Maybe it is different in the States, but generally a "director" would be an investor and not be on salary. Any money returned to them would be after all expenses were paid (return on investment). What would a "directors" job be in the everyday workings of a 15 table restaurant (other than scarfing up free food, which is a bad thing if it is allowed)?

Above it all? If anyone on Food TV ever set out on a path to become a "name" it is Alton Brown. He worked very hard to get on there and it was in no way an accident(not that this is a bad thing, as I am one of those Luddites who happens to believe that hard work and self promotion go hand in hand and I also believe that if one is good at what he does he deserves all of the success available in whatever field is chosen). I am pretty sure that, given the opportunity, you will see Alton as a huckster for a few products very soon. He is not exactly coming from a career at El Bulaundry.

I like Nigella Lawson. I like her shows and I like the way she writes about food. She is ok with me and I hope that she stays around the TV cooking world. THe fact that she is not hard to look at has nothing to do with this opinion at all. Ina Garten, on the other hand, is an o.k. home cook but no better than the dozens of other Southern socialite ladies that populate the TV in the South cooking on "The Morning Show" or the "News at Noon" in a little five minute cooking slot or in a slot that allows Bob and Jan to cut back to the kitchen for a little shot before the commercial breaks. Ina apparently just has a better agent than the majority of these women. Oddly, the "oohing and ahhng" doesn't bother me much, as it is kind of something that these women just do. Much like women who have been sorority sisters continue to make a high pitched squeal when they run into each other at lunch-it is just something that comes naturally to them and it becomes almost unnoticable after the millionth occurance.

You have hit upon a serious pet peeve of mine. I am lucky enough to have access to several family lake/beach houses and find myself bringing a load of kitchen gear everytime I go. I generally end up leaving a some of it and just repacing it when I go home. The real aggravation is when I leave a decent knife and I come back and it looks like someone has been using it for chopping firewood. The irony of this is that the owners of these houses have kitchens in their homes that most of us would kill for and that the kitchens themselves in the camps are better than adequate. For some reason both of them are filled with leftover/wornout kitchen gear that was not of any quality in the first place. They may as well have gone to a Charity Shop and picked up all of the utensils. I actually brought a set of Calphalon for one of these places as I was sick of trying to cook in bent sautee pans with loose plastic handles. Not that I am complaining or anything. I am extremely grateful to have use of these places and don't mind at all (this inserted as my Mom is an occasional lurker and she cn be a bit testy about any kind of culinary criticism )

And the beauty of this time of year is that you can have whatever style makes you happy. In the words of a native son of the Crescent City, "It's a wonderful world." Happy Carnival to Everyone.

No, No, No. The conversation goes like this. Let's say that two guys are riding in a car and one guy says to the other, "Hey Bubba, jawannacoke?" The other guys says, " Yeah. Stop at that Jr. Mart and get me a one of them Barq's." This is a recreation of an actual conversation. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is wholly intended and no rights have been reserved.

I should say before I give my preference that I am not a big fan of the new trend of filling King Cakes with goo. I like the traditional ones with brioche dough laden with cinnamon and butter. And while I love sugar, I think that many of the makers use way too much on top of the cake. That being said I really like Gambino's King Cakes the best. I also find that Haydel's Bakery does a nice job as well. I have recently used them to ship several cakes to lucky recipients who live in a land with no King Cakes (sad, dark places to the North of New Orelans) and they gave the whole experience good reviews. The cakes come along with a Arthur Hardy Mardi Gras Guide and other carnival geegaws. This years cake from Haydel's is accompanied by a porcelain king cake baby in the guise of Pete Fountain and a plastic baby inside of the cake (many places stopped putting the baby in the cake out of insurance fears). I was at a Carnival Event last night and the cake at the party came from Paul's Bakery in Picayune, MS.. This place makes the majority of its income for the entire year shipping Kind Cakes from a little bakery in the woods in rural Western Mississippi. It was a very good cake (it had some kind of pecan creme filling and thankfully it was not too sweet), although it had a giant pile of the traditional purple, green, and gold grnulated sugar topping. The Mandeville Bakeshop, on the Northshore, also has a pretty good king cake (thier regular baked goods are really good and they have AWESOME fried pies). Welcome to egullet and I hope that you become a regular poster. There are many here that need accurate info on our strange and humid land and I can use all of the help I can get. Many here take everything I say with a grain of salt all because of some bullheaded and misguided hatred of Okra. You would think that broader minds would prevail, but they rarely seem to when it comes to this misunderstood pod. Edited to say that between McKenzie's and KB, I am not sure which I miss more. Those party shells from McKenzie's were the handiest item on the planet when making canapes for parties. No one else seems to do them quite the right way and certainly not for the bargain price that they used to produce them for. I miss the fine K&B Brand line of Fine Spirits. Nothing livened up a party more than whipping out the 1/2 gallon plastic containers of K&B Scotch, Bourbon, and Vodka. Now that was some fine drinking.

I live in the Deep South. It's all Coke no matter what flavor you want-Dr. Pepper, Barq's, 7-Up, Sprite, Big Shot, etc.-It's all Coke. Pop is a name for your Grandfather or a reaction caused by sticking a pin in a balloon. One kind of soda goes in bisquits and the other kind goes in Bourbon.

Well, now that you bring it up, I suppose I do. We "Read, Chew, Discuss". Giving a shit is not a requirement, although it is often the case.

Were my stupid, impossible to install for some reason, copy of Photoshop 7.0 working I would provide fabulous digital photos of the omelettes I made using the water addition. I added finely minced onion and yellow bellpepper, cilantro, and finely shaved (almost like dust) reggiano. Delicious. The younger Mayhaws enjoyed them as well, but sans cilantro (they will eat all manner of raw fish but won't touch cilantro-go figure ) . Excellent course. I learned much and watching it unfold over the course of the week.